Corporate Environment Design Done Right (with Legos)

October 5, 2018

There’s that cliché about making a good first impression (oh no, you get one chance!) and for most companies that begins the moment a visitor walks through the door. From the get-go, assessments are being made about your brand’s authenticity — perhaps even unconsciously.

A company’s corporate environment design is the most immediate expression of its brand and values. Is the design consistent with the story it’s telling the world outside its walls? If not, why the disconnect?

A legend in corporate environment design is Denmark-based Lego — yes, the interlocking plastic toy brick people. Early in the 21st century, the company boasted an area in its corporate headquarters that was tantamount to an interactive art installation:

“To enter, visitors first donned unibody clean suits and slipped on paper hospital booties. Middle-aged toy buyer and retail guests suddenly found themselves dressed like new fathers about to enter the birthing room,” writes Patrick Hanlon in Primalbranding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future. “In the first room, a television blared about war and violence and the chaos of humankind. A table and chair hanged upside down from the ceiling: The world had been turned upside down and inside out. The next room was the birthing room, and a woman giving birth scream on an audio track…”

And then, after some other theatrics, presto, you were “born,” or perhaps reborn into the land Lego as see through the eyes of a child. There was even a “forest” of oversized pant legs to evoke the sense of being a toddler again.

Now, not every company requires the extreme whimsy of Lego but perhaps those tasked with corporate environment design should keep in mind that a brand-consistent experience not only makes a good first impression, but it also makes a lasting impression.